Any populist claims made by Donald Trump are heretofore considered fraudulent.
This man is no populist. He’s barely popular and his policies will not help his constituents as much as they think.
The economic numbers that came out Friday were encouraging and at this point it’s Trump’s economy. Unemployment is down for almost every demographic group and wages are starting to edge upwards. But there are also fewer people in the work force and his aggressive anti-immigrant screeds are causing labor shortages that could spread from less attractive jobs to jobs that make the economy work.
Then there’s the trade policy that focuses obsessively on trade deficits, which are not necessarily the big problem we have with other countries. Many of those countries, including China, provide us with less expensive goods that wage-challenged Americans need in their daily lives. Plus, many American companies like Boeing, are worried that steel and aluminum will cost more. And the Export-Import Bank, a real bugaboo for conservative Republicans, won’t be around to help them weather foreign competition.
Add to that the inflation that is already showing itself in gasoline and food prices. And the tax bill that will be a great surprise to filers come next April, especially in states like New Jersey and New York, and you have a mixture of economic news that is decidedly, well…mixed.
But the real outrage should be directed at the president’s remarks about the deepening scandal over the payments he authorized to Stormy Daniels – authorizations he denied just a few months ago. His defense that using Non Disclosure Agreements is a useful tool for the wealthy to fend off and manipulate less fortunate people is the height of unrestrained privilege.
President Trump is just as removed from anything populist as the next oligarch. He has spent his whole professional life trying to escape Queens, trying to escape the middle and working class people who live there, including the immigrants that have made Queens the most multicultural borough in New York. Of course, those of us subjected to his tabloid escapades since the 1980s already knew this. His best sell-job was convincing the slim majorities of mid-westerners that he was on their side.
And he misused the word role in his tweets, using roll instead. Nails on the blackboard to this teacher.
In the end, it’s the women and the cover-up that will sink him. Ain’t it always so?
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest
